Category Archives: Africa

Concentrated solar power could meet up to 7 percent of the world’s power needs by 2030 and fully one quarter by 2050

Posted on May 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

Concentrated solar power could meet up to 7 percent of the world’s power needs by 2030 and fully one quarter by 2050.

The 3rd joint report from Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA) and IEA SolarPACES since 2003. With every edition we have increased the projected market volume significantly, and it finally turned over a billion dollars in 2008, this amount could double in 2009. While we highlighted in our first joint report the huge market potential, we were able to move to another message in 2005 when we launched the second report in Egypt: “CSP is ready for take off!”.

We now are delighted to say “CSP has taken off”, is about to step out of the shadow of other renewable technologies and can establish itself as the third biggest player in the sustainable power generation industry. CSP does not compete against other renewable energies; it is an additional one that is now economically viable.

Fighting climate change is paramount as such it is essential that the power generation sector becomes virtually CO2 free as soon as possible. Greenpeace and the European Renewable Industry Council developed a joint global vision – the Energy [R]evolution scenario – which provides a practical blueprint for rapidly cutting energy-related CO2 emissions in order to help ensure that greenhouse gas emissions peak and then fall by 2015. This can be achieved while ensuring economies in China, India and other developing nations have access to the energy that they need in order to develop. CSP plays an important role in this concept.

The Global CSP Outlook 2009 goes actually one step further. While the moderate CSP market scenario is in line with the Energy [R]evolution scenario, the advanced scenario shows that this technology has even more to offer. Globally, the CSP industry could employ as many as 2 million people by 2050 who will help save the climate and produce up to one quarter of the world’s electricity. This is a truly inspiring vision. Especially as this technology has developed it’s very own striking beauty – the stunning pictures in this report show that saving the climate look spectacular.

 

 

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Posted in Africa, Asia, China, Europe, Israel, Technologies, Thoughts, U.S.

The first Multi-National Task Force for 100% Renewable Energy

Posted on March 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Quotes from statement of Steven Chu Secretary of Energy before US Senate on March 5, 2009:

“…how we can better nurture and harness science to solve our energy and climate change problems. I have spent most of my career in research labs – as a student, as a researcher, and as a faculty member. I took the challenge of being Secretary of Energy in part for the chance to ensure that the Department of Energy Laboratories and our country’s universities will generate ideas that will help us address our energy challenges. I also strongly believe that the key to our prosperity in the 21st century lies in our ability to nurture our intellectual capital in science and engineering. Our previous investments in science led to the birth of the semiconductor, computer, and bio-technology industries that have added greatly to our economic prosperity. Now, we need similar breakthroughs on energy.

….We also need to refocus our scarce research dollars. …. to step up efforts to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers. The FY 2010 budget supports graduate fellowship programs that will train students in energy-related fields. I will also seek to build on DOE’s existing research strengths by attracting and retaining the most talented scientists. Focusing on Transformational Research. The second area that I want to discuss is the need to support transformational technology research. What do I mean by transformational technology? I mean technology that is game-changing, as opposed to merely incremental. For example, in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when AT&T Bell Laboratories was focused on extending the life of vacuum tubes, another much smaller research program was started to investigate a completely new device based on a revolutionary new advance in the understanding of the microscopic world: quantum physics. The result of this transformational research was the transistor, which transformed communications, allowed the computer industry to blossom, and changed the world forever. DOE must strive to be the modern version of the old Bell Labs in energy research. Because the payoffs from research in transformational technologies are both higher risk and longer term, government investment is critical and appropriate.

…We need to do more transformational research at DOE to bring a range of clean energy technologies to the point where the private sector can pick them up, including: 1. Gasoline and diesel-like biofuels generated from lumber waste, crop wastes, solid waste, and non-food crops; 2. Automobile batteries with two to three times the energy density that can survive 15 years of deep discharges; 3. Photovoltaic solar power that is five times cheaper than today’s technology; 4. Computer design tools for commercial and residential buildings that enable reductions in energy consumption of up to 80 percent with investments that will pay for themselves in less than 10 years; and 5. Large scale energy storage systems so that variable renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power can become base-load power generators. This is not a definitive list, or a hard set of technology goals, but it gives a sense of the types of technologies and benchmarks I think we should be aiming for. We will need transformational research to attain these types of goals. To make it happen, we will need to re-energize our national labs as centers of great science and innovation. At the same time, we need to seek innovation wherever it can be found – the new ARPA-E program will open up research funding to the best minds in the country, wherever they may be. I pledge to you we will have this program up and running as soon as possible. Broader, More Effective Collaboration: DOE also needs to foster better research collaboration, both internally and externally. My goal is nothing less than to build research networks within the Department, across the government, throughout the nation, and around the globe. We’ll better integrate national lab, university, and industry research. And we will seek partnerships with other nations. For example, increased international cooperation on carbon capture and storage technology could reduce both the cost and time of developing the range of pre- and post-combustion technologies needed to meet the climate challenge. … The Nation needs better technologies to fully meet our climate and energy challenges, and DOE can be a major contributor to this effort”.

The first Multi-national Task force for 100% renewable energy is definitely the right step in the right direction, but we need to do more.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Europe, Israel, Technologies, Thoughts, U.S.

Energy independence is first of all a matter of national security

Posted on February 15, 2009 | Leave a comment

The most exciting international renewable energy Conference is starting tomorrow in Eilat and will last until the end of the week. The conference scientific advisor, Amnon Samid, chairman of the AGS group, told us that besides presenting the state of the art in each sector of the renewable energy and the issues involved with integrating renewable energy into the Grid, the conference will deal with actual questions – like how will the economics of solar power change in the short and mid-term? how much has the financial crisis affected the solar sector – which companies are delaying expansion planes and laying off staff ? will the market for solar power be growing and how fast? Which countries lead manufacturing and installation of solar power? Should or could Israel be a major player in the solar power industry or in other power generation technologies? What new solar thermal and PV plants are in the pipeline and what impact might they have?

In addition to the participation of politicians and businessmen from around the world, the conference will also feature several of the country’s leading solar start-up firms, including GreenSun Energy, Verilite, Solaris Synergy, HelioFocus and Tigo Energy. GreenSun has developed a revolutionary CPV technology to produce high efficiency solar panels that reduce the price per watt of solar energy in half and expects that its technology will reduce the price well below $1 in the next year, while Verilite’s patent pending technology of flat mirror collectors and a passively cooled central linear cell array will deliver an unmatched combination of durability, simplicity and low cost. Solaris Synergy’s new proprietary technology, which integrates a number of innovative mechanical, optical and thermal solutions, is based on medium-concentration solar units with photovoltaic elements cooled by evaporation, dramatically decreasing the temperature of photovoltaic elements. More mature companies will also present, like HelioFocus, that is developing a unique solar thermal technology that is high efficiency and modular, which allows market penetration without extensive project finance, and Tigo Energy, that through the re-partitioning of traditional PV system electronics, has developed a Distributed Inverter System Solution which will immediately provide returns of 7-20% above today’s traditionally architected PV systems.

However, Samid emphasizes that as much as Israel enjoys much creativity and a lot of successful start ups, also in the field of renewable energy, by itself it could not lead to energy security and independence. Now that a new government will be established in Israel, it should take all necessary steps for diversification of energy sources which is essential to energy security and to low carbon energy path to release Israel from depending on fossil fuels. Samid is calling upon the government to establish a special Task Force with strict time table and a required national budget – for developing the required family of technologies for supplying all its electricity needs with no use of oil. This is a matter of national security, and should be dealt as such, emphasizes Samid. ‘Technology will enable us to say we can grow our economy and protect our environment and secure our existence at the same time’.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, China, Conferences, Europe, Israel, Politics, Technologies, U.S.

Golden Opportunity for converting research into sustainable businesses

Posted on October 26, 2008 | 1 Comment

While financial markets are falling apart and businesses that are not based on technology and innovations are knocking the bottom under themselves, the coast is clear for  technology people to buckle down and bear fruit of their ongoing achievements, that were unfortunately not recognized enough so far, while more and more executives with no technology background and understanding were running our economies.   

THE TIME IS RIPE NOW FOR TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE WITH BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIENCE TO TAKE CHARGE!

We are calling upon Academic institutions as well as strategic investors, regional and governmental authorities,  to share our common objectives of providing abundant, clean, secure and affordable energy. The main goals are accelerating the development of energy technologies towards cost-effectiveness for a more sustainable energy economy and ensure that those technologies can compete on the global market. We are initiating establishing a prime Renewable Energy Technological Center, that will be formulated as a holding company operating and owning the following synergistic activities:

-          A framework that will invest in Renewable Energy startups and provide them with full management services

- Providing relevant information to renewable energy companies, including souring for crucial components, suppliers and designers, as well as estimating the competitiveness by calculating several parameters such as levelized cost of electricity produced, cost items, market penetration possibilities etc.

-          Testing and pilots’ facilities for technologies coming out of the Center

-          A framework for industry-academy joint ventures, including providing training services to convert engineers and scientists into renewable energy in general and solar in particular.  

The first phaze in our program is establishing a Test Center for Solar Electricity Generation Technologies for helping accelerate the pace of solar energy as the main endless source of Clean Renewable energy, optimizing the chances of innovative technologies to succeed and provide a unique opportunity for investors in the sector.

Developers of innovative solar electricity technologies will be provided with the full range of technical, financial and other resources necessary to support them along the road towards the marketplace.  Dedicated to solar, the center will be the first of its kind and in a strong position to attract high quality projects.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Contact us at: solar@ags-tech.com

www.TestSol.com

 

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Posted in Africa, Asia, China, Europe, Israel, Technologies, Thoughts, U.S.

more on thin-film….

Posted on January 27, 2008 | Leave a comment
Carvin Goldstone
 

There is light at the end of the tunnel – and it’s not being generated by Eskom but rather by revolutionary solar-powered technology developed by University of Johannesburg professor Vivian Alberts.

He has spent the past 13 years developing highly advanced photovoltaic, or thin-film, solar panels that could be the solution to South Africa – and the world’s – scramble for power.

The panels are already being constructed by Johanna Solar Technology (JST) in Brandenburg, Germany, and will go on sale in Europe this year.

According to JST, current solar modules convert only direct sunlight into electrical energy, but thin-film solar modules convert any light across the spectrum into electricity – generating power even under low-light conditions.

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Posted in Africa, Technologies

Sahara sunshine?

Posted on August 12, 2007 | Leave a comment

After oil and gas, Sahara sunshine?

By AIDAN LEWIS
Associated Press Writer

Aug. 11, 2007

 A gas station of Sidi Fredj, west of Algiers, is equipped with solar panels, July 10, 2007. Now Algeria, rich from sales of oil and gas and aware that its fossil fuels will one day run dry, is one country in the region mapping out a program to produce solar power on an industrial scale _ and even export it to Europe.“This is really a big change now because with all this talking about the limitations of conventional resources,” oil-producing countries “feel obliged to do something,” he said. Algeria seems an obvious source of solar power.Africa’s second largest country is more than four-fifths desert, with enough sunshine to meet Western Europe’s needs 60 times over, according to estimates cited by Algeria’s energy ministry.“The solar potential of Algeria is huge, enormous, because solar radiation is high and there is plenty of land for solar plants,” said Eduardo Zarza Moya, who works on solar power for Spain‘s public energy research center, CIEMAT. “The price of the land is low, it’s cheap, and there is also manpower.”Algeria already uses photovoltaic solar panels to electrify 18 scattered, off-grid villages in the Sahara, and 16 more are due to come on line by 2009. Two such projects are run by British-based company BP.The Hassi R’Mel site represents large-scale power generation. It is the first of four planned hybrid plants which will use Algeria‘s abundant natural gas to supplement sunshine and ensure power at night or in cloudy weather. The Hassi R’Mel plant, which will produce power for domestic consumption, will also house a research center to study how to reduce solar power costs.The hybrid plants will use a thermal technology called concentrating solar power, or CSP, in which sunlight heats fluids to drive an electricity-generating turbine.The system is widely regarded as being cheaper and having better storage potential for large-scale energy production than photovoltaic technology, which converts sunlight directly into electricity. CSP plants have operated in California since the 1980s, but when gas prices fell, new construction stopped.Spanish engineering firm Abener has a 66 percent share in the $425 million Hassi R’Mel project, having won an international tender to build the plant with Algeria’s NEAL.Algeria hopes to build three other hybrids generating 400 megawatts each by 2015, by which time Algeria aims to be producing 6 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.Experts warn that financing the cables may wipe out the profits from selling the power in Europe. They also say the domestic market will find it hard to compete with cheap Algerian oil and gas.

But they’re positive about the long-term outlook. The gas component in the hybrid plants will produce some greenhouse emissions. “But gas is much cleaner than oil and in time you will increase the share of solar,” said Richard Perez, a research professor specializing in solar power at the State University of New York. He spoke to The Associated Press by phone.

  

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Posted in Africa